RE: Public vs. Private information

Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
> 
> How is the data displayed?

<dl>
  <dt>Work phone(s):</dt>
  <dd class="public">(650) 555-1234, (650) 555-1234</dd>
  <dt>Email:</dt>
  <dd class="public"><a
href="mailto:blah.stanford.edu">&lt;email&gt;@stanford.edu</a></dd>
  <dt>Web page:</dt>
  <dd class="private"><a
href="http://url">www.stanford.edu/people/aoliver</a></dd>

Etc.

> 
> If it were in a table, for instance, I'd have an additional column to
> denote private. Then, if it is private, you could have an image with
> alt, some text that you style reasonably unobtrusively, or something
> along those lines. You can then also complement this with styling the
> entire row differently (adding a subtle difference in background
> colour, perhaps).

They *are* making a visual distinction - the background for public data
remains white (class="public"), whereas the private data has a background of
#FFD

 
>> This could conceivably produce a page with
>> 12 - 20 "private icons", an issue in it's own right.
> 
> But if you DO need to indicate whether something is public or private,
> then surely that becomes a non issue, unless I'm missing the nature of
> the "issue"

My concern (and theirs), the issue, is a visual clutter... If I need to echo
back the same "private" icon (currently a "lock") 20 times it will become a
visual overload - I can't get buy in here.  Bold text however does stand out
without the same visual noise.  How do I convey this distinction in a
non-visual way is the conundrum.

JF

Received on Monday, 20 November 2006 22:46:54 UTC